Docs contributing

[BENZOOgataga]

This pull request introduces two major improvements: it adds a comprehensive CONTRIBUTING.md guide to clarify contribution workflows and expectations, and it enhances CI reliability by introducing a "Verify Gate" job that unifies status checks for branch protection. Additionally, release notes entries have been created to document these changes.

Documentation improvements:

• Added a detailed CONTRIBUTING.md file outlining development setup, maintenance mode, release note guidelines, testing, code style, database changes, security, and a PR checklist.
• Added a release note for the new contributing documentation. (.releases/unreleased/docs-contributing.md)

Continuous Integration enhancements:

• Introduced a "Verify Gate" job in .github/workflows/verify.yml that always runs, summarizes the outcome of verification jobs, and provides a single status check for branch protection.
• Set explicit permissions: read for workflow contents to improve security in CI.
• Added a release note for the new CI verify gate job. (.releases/unreleased/ci-verify-gate-job.md)

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Overview

Greptile Summary

This PR adds comprehensive contributing documentation (CONTRIBUTING.md) and improves CI reliability with a unified "Verify Gate" job for branch protection.

Key Changes:

• New CONTRIBUTING.md provides clear guidance on local development setup, maintenance mode usage, release notes requirements, testing, code style, and security practices
• CI workflow now includes a gate job that always runs and consolidates the status of changes, docs-only, and verify jobs into a single check
• Added explicit permissions: contents: read to workflow for better security posture
• Release notes properly document both changes following the project's release entry convention

Alignment with AGENTS.md:
The contributing guide accurately reflects the golden rules defined in docs/agents/AGENTS.md, including maintenance mode requirements (Golden Rule #1), release entry requirements (Golden Rule #2), local-only commits (Golden Rule #3), and testing expectations. The documentation provides contributors with a clear path to follow project conventions.

Confidence Score: 5/5

• This PR is safe to merge with minimal risk - it adds documentation and improves CI workflow reliability without changing application code.
• The changes are purely additive: new documentation file and enhanced CI workflow logic. The gate job implementation correctly handles the three possible states (changes detection, docs-only path, and full verification path) with proper failure handling. Release notes follow project conventions. No application logic is modified.
• No files require special attention

_{Last reviewed commit: d6d4857}

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request establishes formal contribution guidelines and improves CI reliability for the CorpSim project. It introduces comprehensive documentation for contributors covering development workflows, testing requirements, and project conventions, while also implementing a unified gate job for branch protection that ensures reliable status checks.

Changes:

• Added CONTRIBUTING.md with detailed development setup, maintenance mode workflows, release note requirements, testing guidelines, code style expectations, and security best practices
• Introduced a "Verify Gate" job in the CI workflow that provides a single, always-running status check for branch protection by aggregating the results of verification and docs-only jobs
• Created release note entries documenting both the new contributing documentation and CI gate job improvements

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
CONTRIBUTING.md	New comprehensive guide covering development setup (Node.js 20+, pnpm, Docker), maintenance mode workflows, release note requirements, testing/quality gates, code style expectations, database migration practices, security guidelines, and PR checklist
.github/workflows/verify.yml	Added top-level permissions: read for security and introduced gate job that runs with if: always() to aggregate verification outcomes from changes, docs-only, and verify jobs into a single status check
.releases/unreleased/docs-contributing.md	Release note documenting the addition of CONTRIBUTING.md with area "docs" and type "patch"
.releases/unreleased/ci-verify-gate-job.md	Release note documenting the new Verify Gate job with area "ci" and type "patch"

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